A Homelessness Plan for Chatham-Kent

Vision: By 2024, Chatham-Kent will have a community of service providers who work collaboratively to prevent homelessness.

Target: To ensure that no individual or family in the community is without stable housing for longer than 30 days.

Key Findings:

  • Homelessness in the Municipality is invisible, yet it is increasing, and it affects families as well as individuals. 
  •  It is estimated that between 590 and 629 individuals and families experienced homelessness in Chatham-Kent and sought assistance as a result in 2012-2013.
  • 3,187 households sought assistance through the Chatham-Kent Shelter Solutions Homelessness prevention program in the year.
  • Women and children staying in the Chatham Kent Women’s Centre are staying in shelter longer.
  • Rent in the Municipality is continuing to rise, despite high vacancy rates, and low-income households, particularly those receiving assistance, cannot afford housing, which places them at risk of homelessness.
  • Access to emergency accommodation is limited in the Municipality, and there is a need for increased access to temporary supports to help households attain housing stability, as well as more intensive forms of support for people who have deeper needs relating to addiction and mental illness.

Seven Homelessness Objectives recommended:

  1. Strengthen partnerships between service providers that support people who are homeless or at-risk in Chatham-Kent.
  2. Promote service coordination.
  3. Maintain a focus on homelessness prevention.
  4. Expand access to emergency accommodation within a Housing First framework.
  5. Implement transitional financial and other supports to promote housing stability.
  6. Adopt common metrics to homelessness data for program planning and performance monitoring.
  7. Engage in advocacy and awareness-raising.
Publication Date: 
2013
Location: 
Chatham-Kent, Ontario